


Casterly Elementary

by Coraleeveritas



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Military, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Meet-Cute, Mindless Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-27 03:09:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,910
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16210154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coraleeveritas/pseuds/Coraleeveritas
Summary: Jaime quirked an eyebrow. "I stand corrected,Captain. Do you also have a first name or would you prefer to be called Captain Pod and Pia's mom?""Of course I do."Gods, she was stubborn. It was kind of refreshing. "And?"





	Casterly Elementary

**Author's Note:**

> A little something for appreciation week, I just couldn't get anything else finished in time sadly. I'm hoping to get my Supernatural inspired fic out for Halloween though :)
> 
> Any mistakes are my own, though the characters are not.

Jaime Lannister didn't make a habit of talking to the mothers waiting outside his son's elementary school at pick up time but, for the newcomer, he realised he might have to make an exception.

It wasn't that she was especially attractive, far from it actually, but there was something about the tall blonde that repeatedly drew his attention away from the closed classroom door to where she had chosen to stand, awkwardly hovering just beyond the chattering crowd. She was too tall to go completely unnoticed though, and the nasty whispers reached his ears just as easily as they did hers judging by the colour her cheeks were turning.

On another day, under a different sky or with the soft spring of grass at their feet rather than chalked asphalt, he might have tried to find out how easily she'd blush after hearing something a little sweeter. Her eyes were certainly blue enough to deserve a compliment even if the rest of her face wasn't.

It couldn't have been the first time someone had passed comment on her crooked nose, the width of her shoulders or the way she walked like a drill sergeant was watching her every step, especially if she'd ventured into any of the other stuck up suburbs of Casterly, but the longer the surgically enhanced cowards laughed amongst themselves at the sight of an ugly duckling in their mists, the more annoyed Jaime felt himself becoming. His feet took him across the playground before he had a chance to relive any of the times the jibes had been aimed at him or his brother, the dwarf and the cripple, the accident that had taken Jaime's right hand and ended his own military career in one fell swoop not too distant a memory.

"At ease, lieutenant," he called out as he sidled up to her chosen spot on the railing, the tension she was holding in her muscles even more obvious close up. "It's not going to help matters if you pulled something before the afternoon retrieval mission took place."

"Captain," she replied without looking at him directly, her gaze staying focused on the garish mural the first and second grade classes had painted the previous summer. The project had come at a time of great change in the Lannister family, his pre-teen daughter, Myrcy, winning a residential place at the best ballet school in the Seven Kingdoms only days before the paint had arrived, and Tommen coming home covered in streaks of ruby red and sunshine yellow provided Jaime with the right kind of diversion from worrying about the damage his parenting choices was causing.

Jaime quirked an eyebrow. "I stand corrected, _Captain_. Do you also have a first name or would you prefer to be called Captain Pod and Pia's mom?"

"Of course I do."

Gods, she was stubborn. It was kind of refreshing. "And?"

"And I don't give it out to every cross fit junkie with designer stubble and a flashy car who's just looking to get a rise out of me so they can brag about it to their friends." She stared down at him, resolute in her assessment. "I've met your type before."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," he said. "If only because there aren't many Lannisters still in the military. And I've never been into cross fit. Running, biking, hiking, boxing-"

She sighed, holding up a hand to ask him to stop. "So you're Tommen's dad."

"Commander Jaime Lannister, Navy combat diver," he replied in lieu of a less formal introduction, quickly stretching his left hand out to shake in case her training was so deeply ingrained she couldn't resist the urge to salute. "Retired."

"Captain Brienne Tarth. Out of WAF Storms End. On leave," she paused, finally turning to give him more than a passing percentage of her attention. The blue of her irises became his entire world for a moment, a wave of glorious colour all he could see while she swept a critical eye up and down his frame as he did the same with her, sizing each other up like they were back in basic training and being asked to step into the boxing ring together.

He felt her tentative inspection stop at his waist, appearing sympathetic but not pitying at the sight of his prosthetic hand, though he couldn't not continue his study down her ridiculously long legs, wondering how many airman had been stood in his exact position, working out the odds while squaring up against the captain and her spectacular shoulders before a single blow had been thrown. As her eyes skipped back up to his face, Jaime smiled wider when she finished checking him out with a pointed glare.

"Did you miss the orientation talk, Commander, when they mention you're not supposed to tell strangers you are or were a Seal?"

He shrugged absently, noticing that the conspiratorial whispers around them were reaching new levels of faux concern. "You seem trustworthy enough not to pass it on. Captain."

"How on earth can you be sure of that?" she retorted sharply. "You've only just met me. I could be lying about any number of things."

"You could but you don't seem the sort. That giant stick up your butt kind of gives the game away," Jaime countered just as firmly.

"I don't have a stick up my butt."

"You do from where I'm standing."

"Maybe you need your eyes testing."

"You don't need good eyesight to be an excellent judge of character," he decided. "Which I am. And my son is an even better one. It's been weeks since he's been able to shut up about the new kids in his class and their giant dog."

Brienne almost smiled, her eyes lighting up the way the sun peeked out from behind storm clouds, clearly no stranger to Tommen's reaction from the chatter of her own little ones. Though as soon as Jaime noticed the change, it was gone. "It's a recent addition. We went to look at a litter of puppies but Bear needed a home more."

"See?" Jaime crowed, close to feeling victorious though he wasn't sure why. "No single parent with two five year olds would do that if she had a heart of ice lurking under all her body armour."

She frowned. "We have to leave the body armour at the base."

"Yes, ma'am," he chuckled. "Can't go breaking any of those pesky rules."

"Rules are there for a reason, Commander. Usually to keep-"

"Jaime," he insisted, already liking the way she curled her tongue around his former rank a little too much. "Now that I'm a civilian again, you really should call me Jaime."

"Usually to keep people safe, Jaime. Even the chain of command is there to prevent unnecessary casualties. I mean you didn't let Tommen stick his fingers in electrical sockets when he was a baby did you?"

"That's not the best example you could have used," Jaime replied evenly. "The courts didn't grant me custody until he was nearly three."

"Sorry," she muttered, her attention darting back to the beginnings of activity behind the classroom doors.

"He barely remembers and you didn't know," he shrugged, not wanting to dwell on the past. "But now that you do, I suppose you'd probably be opposed to setting up a play date sometime next week? We could debate the finer points of running with scissors and setting fireworks off inside while the kids play."

Brienne blinked at him in surprise, her mouth opening and closing while he smoothly continued on.

"No?" he answered his own question with another before she had a chance to disappoint him with what would likely be a flimsy excuse. "I guess with twins you don't have to worry about that so much but Tommen could do with a friend or two."

"He's an only child?" Brienne asked, her tone softening even if her tightly folded arms didn't move an inch. "I know that can..."

"His sister is training to be a ballet dancer beyond the wall. She visits at holidays. When she can."

Brienne did smile that time, something small and sad making Jaime immediately wish he hadn't shared that piece of information so freely. "I can't imagine how hard that must be," she told him so quietly that he had to strain to hear her. "I've only had Pod and Pia a few months and I already feel like a lioness around them."

"She wanted to go," Jaime said, justifying it more to himself than to the stranger he'd just connected more with in minutes than he'd been able to with certain family members he'd known for his whole life. "She wasn't happy after...wait, did you just say you've only had your twins for a couple of _months_?"

"It's not a big secret but it's isn't something I'm shouting from the rooftops either." Brienne shook her head, scuffing the toe of her boot along the playground. "I brought them back with me from my last mission. Other officers do that, too, you've probably seen dogs rescued from war zones on the news. There's some of us that seem to have a habit of picking up strays."

"But that's a good thing, right?" Jaime butted in, ignoring the way she was now staring him down.

"We kept coming across them when my squadron were on manoeuvres, they didn't have much family but they were happy enough. We shared our rations, I gave Pod my scarf and everything felt as okay as it could be."

She let go of a deep breath and Jaime could hear the guilt and sadness rising to the surface. "After I found out their village had been destroyed by the group we were there to fight, I....I couldn't leave them to an orphanage. Not when we'd spent so much time together already. My dad pulled a few strings here and there, smoothed things over with the admiral, so now I've got nine months to get them settled before I have to decide whether to go back to the military or apply for a commercial pilots job."

"You definitely did the right thing." It was funny that Jaime could know that for certain while he was still struggling to come to terms with letting go of his daughter. "Just because thousands wouldn't make that choice doesn't mean you did something wrong."

"Most days I just don't know."

"Well that would make two of us," Jaime promised with what he hoped was a winning smile though it was probably closer to resigned. He let the beat of silence that fell between them stretch to the point of almost uncomfortable, ready to remind her not to get there so early tomorrow as Miss Stone's face finally appeared in the window, starting to direct the children to pick up their coats and bags from the cloakroom when Brienne spoke up.

"Would W-Wednesday work for Tommen? My dad has them Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Monday they're all at art club, so, Wednesday?"

Her cheeks were beet red, rapidly losing the fight with embarrassment, and as she provided him with directions from the school to her house Jaime found he couldn't have cared less what anyone around them said in that moment, Brienne Tarth was a vision that would haunt his dreams.

"I think this might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship, Captain."

He didn't know how right he would be.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
